Raising Tombstones
by Renzin
Summary: There are people in this world that are ugly, not by their appearance, but their hearts; their mouths are rotting with their foul words, and they can tear away the roots of another, until their world starts to crumble. You must listen to me; no matter how many times it is said otherwise, you are not a monster. You are good. And the type of person that you are is entirely up to you.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, only this storyline, my OCs and my artwork.**

Prologue

* * *

 _"The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous"_  
― John le Carré

* * *

It was the rainiest day of the year, and as was natural in the Fire country, the air was humid and chaotic, great cracks of white lightning crawling down from the heavens. The wide concave leaves of the forest were heavy, tipping to the ground like tapered tongued pottery, and rivers of muds were carving their way through the once dusty earth. The deep set prints of larger animals became viscous oasis's, unfortunate flies wallowing within. The thick, sturdy trees native in the forest bent like blades of split grass in the wind; their bark was drenched with deep wine stains, and at their tops their leaves were forcefully plucked from their grasp.

The usual shell speckled sky of the early morning was scarred with blackened clouds, casting a dense cloak of gloom over the land. There was a single faint squawk of agony from one bird too slow to reach safety, almost unheard over the turret of the storm, before it too became non existent.

Rouge contorted limbs kicked through the thick forest, too weak to forge any safe path through the underbrush. A trail of blood hung behind them, as shaking hands intervened to push against the clawing branches ahead. The wind was blowing at an unfortunate angle, not directly against the figure, but at enough of a sharp diagonal so as to force it to travel at a hasty, painful pace that sent it crashing into the surroundings again and again.

Her moans were lost in the storm, reminiscent of the lost bird that she had heard before. Every step meant more dirt pressed onto her mangled feet, greater tears in her frayed cloth coverings, and the continued drumming of the stabbing aches in her joints. Her muscles felt like shredded meat, and the biting cold was causing her to shake as much as the terrified leaves around her. The pressure in her ears repeatedly swelled, and she was blind in the chaos, face folded into itself against the daggers in the wind. Her fears of being thrown into the sky and dropped down from a great height by the great storm were growing.

It felt endless. Civilisation could have been weeks away, and she would not know. The girl was fairly certain that her chances of finding another living soul was near impossible, and yet still she stumbled on. Several times the wind travelled into the forest enough to force her to proceed on her hands and knees, and yet she could not stop, no matter the pains of her body that demanded it. Kami, she wanted to. She wanted to let herself drop, close eyes and just fade away, but what she would be leaving in this world could not be lost.

The girl hugged the large protrusion from her belly, gaining strength from it like a talisman, and continued on her journey.

There was a lull in the storm, and yet the iridescent clouds circled her position, as if she was at the motionless centre of the storm. She took a moment to rest within the arms of a low separation of the main tree trunk into two individual heads. Later, a jolt of horror awoke her from a restless sleep, and after realising that she had drifted away from consciousness in the open, she practically threw herself back to her feet for her aimless journey.

She stumbled with a start when the rough terrain of mud and leafy debris gave way to large rocks of the lips of an overgrown river. With a roaring stomach guiding her, she used her hands to sift through the escaping waters even if she had no way to cook any fish, but after her hopes were ignored yet again, the girl tore into the cracks of the riverbed to uproot loose threads of water weeds. They were bitter, and one particular type caused her cracked mouth to swell, but it was a small miracle in itself.

The concept of time was lost to her with no sun. Dread grew as the distressing aches of her swollen belly increased, and the thought of giving birth alone in this wilderness seemed like a terrible comeuppance she must have somehow earned. No particular deity had ever been any more or less reverential to her, but now she prayed, bargained and begged that at least her child would be born safety, even if its mother would fade away swiftly after. The winds grew in ferocity and slapped her skin so that red welts were being battered back into the skin, but still she continued.

Not for the first time, she cried for her mother.

The gates of Kohona were sturdy and tall, thankfully withstanding what must have been the worst storm the centre of fire country had experiences in decades. Civilians were hiding in their homes, all routes of trade were empty and closed, and the nin of the hidden leaf village were monitoring their weather as if the enemy were at their gates. Thankfully jutsus and other safety measures had been placed all over the village, such as shields to prevent the shattering of windows and to stop any trees from being uprooted for flight. The huge carved faces of the Hokages watched sentinel over their village, a glow of comfort and stability emanating from them.

Even in these conditions however, the gates were still housed with alert guards, though they all collectively wished that it hadn't been their turn on the router. Several times they had heard the crying of the inhabitants of the forest amongst the white noise of the storm, however they did not leave their posts. The Hokage had already issued orders to not venture out of the gates, and it was inevitable that the wildlife would be affected as well.

Yet there was one echoing moan that seemed to reach them despite the violent weather. They were steadfast to pity and ignore it, until its source entered the clearing in front of the gate. The figure was female, most definitely human and at the site of blood covering her from the base of her great belly downwards, the eyes of the guards widened with shock, and they sprung into action. They called for gates to be opened. A rush of them sprinted out of their safety to the crumpled girl, gingerly grabbing her arms and legs, and just as swiftly, she was brought into the cocoon of Kohona.

* * *

"Keep her steady, she'll fall off in a minute!"

"Give me another towel!"

"Miss, can you hear me? I need you to keep pushing, breath with me common- dammit, she's barely lucid!"

"Sensei, we need to remove the last two, should I-"

"Do it now, we can't let that infection take hold!"

"She crowning! Wait a second-"

"Kami what _is that?!"_

 _"Just get it out!"_

The girl's cries rang out through the medical centre, the repeated crying for her okaa san haunting and endless until her voice was raw and cracked. Several large pieces of flying debris from the storm had been lodged into the girl's sides, her two outer toes on one foot had been amputated, and after the Iryo nin were done dispelling their healing chakra through her, great threads of scars covered her feet and hands like a layer of rubber bands. Something had hit her arm, dislocating it by the elbow, and while she was now stable, her body was mottled with a cloak of blackened plum bruises.

The attention of the medics were now on the _child_ that had just been delivered. It was crying and flailing viciously, and several attendants now had several scratches from its clawed hands and feet. There was a gelatinous substance stuck to its rough surface, the remains of the sac that it had left the womb in. While an umbilical cord had to also be cut, the fluid keeping it turgid inside the sac burst onto the floor with a putrid stench as the child began to ingest the membrane of the sac for its high protein content. Cleaning the child had been an arduous task, as none of the staff wanted to even touch it, even without its natural weapons on hand. They went about the business by wiping it down efficiently in a tub of warm water while it was distracted with a particular target.

The medics had been horrified, but now that a messenger had been sent to the Hokage of their patients, they were dutifully moving the child to an incubation chamber as the mother was moved to the recovery ward. However as soon as the child was lifted away from the bed, the mother suddenly shot back into awareness.

"No, no! Give me my baby! _Please!_ My baby!" Her desperation panicked the iryo nin as she tried to roll off the bed, enough so that the disgusted medic holding the child hastily placed it in her grip, raising the sides of the bed to prevent from it rolling off.

"What gender..." She croaked, her skin slick with sweat and heat.

The medic shared a glance at the other staring iryo nin, moving behind the head board of the bed to start wheeling them to the new ward. "It's male." He said shortly.

The mother's bleary eyes gazed down at her child, a mirror image of all the other mothers that were looking at their offspring for the first time. "Aa...He's so _beautiful..."_ Her grip tightened, apparently not hearing someone click their tongue derisively.

* * *

 **Just a little something I've been dying to write; it's quite dark, with elements of the supernatural, segregation issues and drama. This isn't going to be a great big comedy or carefree like a lot of other stories I've done; its about a mother and a boy who are ostracised in society for various reasons. By no means do I want it to be depressing and draining, but I want to approach it with (as much of) a sense of realism as I can when dealing with anime ^_^**

 **I also wanted to write something that included a civilian's point of view in the Naruto world, as well as including a** **shinobi's, so this is what I came up with. This is going to be following the life of these two people, and not necessarily canon, but I don't think I'd class it as AU.**

 **Thank you for reading, please review and tell me what you think!**

 **Love,**

 **Renzin xo**


	2. A Vow Is Made

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, only this storyline, my OCs and my artwork.**

Chapter 1

* * *

 _"My mother groaned, my father wept,_  
 _into the dangerous world I leapt."_  
― William Blake

* * *

There was nothing that the nurse could ascertain from the appearance of the baby in his tired mother's arms that would make her consider him beautiful; a statement that uttered by any other mother would have produced smiles and understanding from the hospital workers, had invoked varying levels of horror, pity, disgust and derision. For surely, it was hard to image that this child's face could be loved by even its own mother.

It had been a little over a day since the woman that had staggered to the gates of Kohona had given birth. As of yet, the storm had not waned, only retreating one or twice to a downpour that could be considered a public shower.

The nurse pursed her lips and continued to make the bed opposite the only occupied one in the long room. She was a professional, and it wasn't her place to say such things. This hadn't of course stopped the story of the devil child travelling through the entire hospital; she wouldn't be surprised if the Hokage was involved soon. People were gossiping about the mysterious woman and her offspring; some thought that she had been attacked by some demon and left for dead, others that she _willingly_ carried the spawn of some otherworldly creature. There was even speculation that the mother herself was a beast hidden in the skin of a human, despite the fact that the iryo nin were fairly certain she only possessed the weak chakra of a civilian.

The nurse was pulled out of her thoughts by a warbling cry, one that would surely deepen into a terrifying roar with age. She used the pretence of carrying out the dirty sheets in her basket to sneak another glance at the male child.

The mother was currently feeding the child in her right arm, the left gingerly circling it so as to not put pressure on the recently healed elbow. Her gown was unbuttoned, a sheet placed to cover herself, yet the nurse could see that overgrown bulk of the child, and as it shifted restlessly to get closer to the breast, she caught a vivid glimpse of its profile.

It was hideous.

Soft pale scales covered its exterior, mottling into translucent greens and a thin trail of plum along the back of the skull. The bone structure was sharp despite its healthy layer of flesh, odd bumps trailing along its head like the buds of horns, continuing down its back and shoulders until finally forming definite points by the end of an unnatural protrusion that was unmistakably a extra limb was fat and stubbed at the end, curling around its own leg with fluidity.

Otherwise, one might have called it humanoid; there were four limbs, ending in blunt bones that were undoubtedly the bases of claws, though thankfully the teeth hadn't broken through the gum yet. While its face was somewhat _human_ in structure, there was only a shallow ridge ending in flared slits where a nose would be found, and its jaws were wide enough to be considered a muzzle. The heavy brow fit for glaring framed a pair of startlingly blue eyes, the only feature it seemed to share with its mother. However they were far more reptilian and sharp, flickering around even in their drowsy state.

The mother sighed, wincing again and cooing at her child to let go. After a great fuss, it released her breast, but before it could complain was presented with the other. While it was sufficiently distracted, the woman place a hand on the free nipple in an attempt to sooth the fading teeth marks that remained, yet all the while she watched her son with the sort of reverential look that stilled the air in ones throat.

It certainly did so to the nurse's. She hadn't realised that she was still standing frozen in the doorway, watching the scene that both softened her and sickened her, until the female set of cobalt eyes caught her own. The nurse flushed in embarrassment at being caught watching, and was yet again caught off guard by the mother's small, fatigued smile. The former returned it before hurrying away, several conflicting thoughts running through her head.

* * *

By the third day since her arrival, the girl was slowly exiting her euphoric haze of emotion that seemed to blur her thoughts around the edges. She lay slightly propped up, a recently eaten tray of dinner left on the side table. She knew it wouldn't be taken until all the other patients had been visited in her ward; she entertained the image of the nurses all choosing straws to see which would have to enter her room.

It was a private one at the end of the ward, where she was moved to the previous day. She didn't mind it, preferred it really. She wasn't very comfortable with social interactions like those shared between the other new mothers, and refused to think about how she was probably moved so that her son would not distress the other new-borns.

The girl's lips tilted upwards with a light air. Days ago she was hoping at the very least her son would survive long enough to be pitied and saved by a passing stranger, while her own death would pass swiftly. In her condition, injured, starving and lost, she hadn't considered her chances high, but now here they both were, safe and warm in the maternity wards of Kohona while the storm that had tormented her raged on outside.

She had discovered her location from one of the iryo nin that had been checking up on her. After being told of what injuries that had treated her for, as well as a list of warnings to not exert herself, she had received the most shocked and pitying look when she asked where she was.

Kohona, the hidden village of the fire country.

Well, she certainly hadn't expected that.

The last house she had passed had been a farm house that must have been miles away. It must have been fate that had led her to the lap of the fire nin. Somewhere along the way the storm had driven her to the cover of the trees and that had been the last she had seen of the road until now. Ironically, she realised now that if she had stuck to the road eventually she would have met with the Kohonan guards that had closed the road, and in her condition they would have immediately escorted her.

She wasn't blind, or stupid by any means. Despite the warm room, steady influx of meals everyday and routine check ups on her son and herself, she knew that she was in foreign territory. It was one thing to let in a stranger into the village, another when she gave birth to a monster.

The mother stroked the silken scales of her babe. She also was very aware of what everybody saw in her arms, and that soon they would be confronted. Being kicked out was to be expected, but if they tried to take him away - her gripped tightened - no matter that she was a mere civilian, a mother always found a way.

The father wasn't reptilian at all. Even though the abnormal weight she seemed to carry, violent kicking and strange meat cravings were extreme to that of a normal pregnancy, she hadn't expected to find out her child didn't even have the same type of skin as her.

But despite this, despite looking with functioning eyes at the same boy everybody else saw, to her he was beautiful. A miracle of unknown proportions. If people weren't so shocked and terrified of the demon influences, they would see the glossy pebbled surface, swirling eyes and a tail that was quite frankly the cutest thing.

Perhaps she really had been taken by a demon disguised as a man, but on the other hand, this could have been the fault of one of her elders - perhaps reptilian genes were recessive.

Whatever the cause, he was her _son._ He was Himura Mizuchi. And no matter her own fate, Himura Ren would see him safe.

The solitude was broken by a knock at her door. A moment later, it slid open and a man with a rather strange pyramid hat entered.


End file.
